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[AAR] Folk [Sun] 13 May 2012

Comrades, you know a session has gone well when the final mission starts long into the third hour, and the playercount is still close to 20. We peaked at close to 30 players this evening, allowing us to field near-full platoons for three large-scale missions. I'm very grateful to everyone who came along tonight. Special mention for the new players - I hope you enjoyed your first Folk session, and will join us again next Sunday. Also, please remember the excellent ARPS Tactical Tuesday, where you'll get to play with many of the same comrades, and experience the joys of respawn.

Again, huge thank you to everyone who came along tonight. We even managed to look competent. Apart from the one where we all got wounded again and again and again. I'm looking at you, comrade admiral Nullkigan, you sadist.

As part of the SF team we were supposed to blow up a few tanks which worked like a charm. Unfortunately when we were about to make our way back to the frontlines, we met a BMP and a T-34 that seemed a bit angry about us blowing up their friends. I lay between rocks in the riverbed as I heard them take out my squadmates one by one and when it was only me left I tried to dash towards the safety of a few buildings ahead. Alas, the first shell sent me to the ground and when I tried to get up again the second shell did the rest.

Watching the rest of the forces getting decimated but yet achieving victory was fun though and we had a good laugh in the spectator's channel about Null's untimely demise.

Lead Stocks
The horror, the horror.
I was commanding and got everyone killed. It was a total clusterfuck and at the end all fireteams where engaged in direct combat with the enemy with no chance of any maneuvering whatsoever. When we tried to disengage we just made it easier for the enemy to finish us off.

Feruzablues

Leading Delta Squad we accompanied the Stryker up until Feruz Abad. While the Stryker did most of the work we had a close call when our rear was engaged halfway to town. I lost astutecat seconds before we hit the first building in Feruz proper from an unknown gunman who I hope was brought to justice by Charlie Squad. As we proceeded through town a sudden explosion shook us awake and we realized that LADA had been taken out by a deviously played SPG.

Still, we managed to stay alive up until the mine which we cleared of hostiles and celebrated our victory by wasting expensive military equipment.

RE:Feruzablues

I'm thinking of replacing the Stryker with something more squishy as for example one or two shielded M2 HMMWs. The alternative would be to add a few more threats like SPG technicals.

Huzzah
HAT 1
With Toppo as the greatest missile carrier ever we followed Alpha along the ridge-line proceeding south towards the target. We must have taken down about 4 tanks or so until we moved forwards, a brief skirmish with a patrol was our only close combat until we began to reach the end of the end of the ridge. We came under automatic fire from very close forcing a slight retreat before we pushed again, I took down a couple before catching a round somewhere important. Again a very good job done by toppo with target id'ing an support.

Lead Stocks
Bravo lead
This quickly turned south with several contacts moving in the tree line directly ahead of us and to our right flank. The entire force became a mass of writhing bodies in record time.

Freuzablues
Alpha Lead
Alpha was to hold on a hillside south of Feruz to provide covering fire and spot targets, spot targets we did with the assistance of the highly useful MMG team (Fer and Toppo) before we came under heavy fire from multiple contacts. The nature of our armament forced us to move closer to engage while MMG covered and provided contact reports from above us. As we moved a couple of us got winged by close infantry and HMG fire from across the town. Some medic-ing from Null got us back together and we proceeded towards the military compound in town. I hostile brdm was giving us issues until weight of fire and the blast from a nearby rocket from f1yer disabled it allowing us to move in. Due to an incident involving an argument with gravity command passed to me at this point, swiftly followed by the explosion of the brdm. The surviving fireteams formed up at the town exit and Charlie and the rest of Alpha (with static dshkm) made their way up the hillside to provide an alternate angle of assault on the mine. The rest of the platoon was suddenly engaged from the rear and alpha and charlie (and medic) were left as the only assault team. Charlie received heavy casualties but the compound was secured and the swift arrival of Delta in support helped clear out the remaining enemy and complete the mission.

Mail Man
Bravo engie (i think)
A swift insertion thanks to comrade tigershark put us down and we were swiftly engaged by ground forces. We eliminated the resistance and secured the Villa del draakon south of the C-130 wreck. With sporadic infantry contacts we secured the data download with little issue and before we knew it we were extracting back to base, I made sure the luxury and decadence of the villa would not be spoiled by hostile occupation and that was a wrap.

In all a very good session, there were a few things that irritated me/made me a bit sad. Both as a command element and a ARPS Admin/Folk Host

- Please remember that Arma with FOLK/ARPS works by obeying orders and a chain of command, it requires a flow of information in both directions and commanding and playing is made much harder if this doesn't happen. This means things like calling targets and relaying them (concisely) to the powers that be and those that need to know. Also checking with command before you deviate from given orders as it may well influence other squads.

- Be careful on comms, there was a lot of noise and chatter that made life quite difficult. If you are on CC then keep it SHORT, people have fireteams and ingame sounds they need to be listening for. Also try to remain calm when relaying info, shouting/panicked messages are either hard to understand or painful to listen to.

- Keep banter to chat, it allows us to get in mission faster. A little banter is not a bad thing but try to keep the map screen and slotting screen quiet so that CO and Host can sort things out. A quick heads up: On the slotting screen the CO is not in charge of slotting it is the host so check in with them if you would like something. Giving people your personal opinion on matters when the CO is making a plan should only happen when the CO asks for it (this is generally only for leaders as well, though the host/admin/mission maker might have something important to add)

This is not a OMG STATE OF THE ARPS! It is however not up for debate either, this is just a few things that need to be taken note of to make life smoother for all.

We are good at being organised - but as an Admin/Host I feel that by flagging these issues early we will not slide into bad habits. It's not just a personal preference, but a personal experience and a necessity: we have, in the past, lost valuable players who have become frustrated at 'chaos'. We don't need to be mil-sim, just organised.

Whenever I play any kind of special forces, ArmAx takes me aside for a little chat. It goes something like this:

ArmAx: Comrade, why are you doing this?
Fer: Because this is fantasy! FANTASY!
ArmAx: Comrade, we've discussed this many times before. You have never had a day of military training in your life. You couldn't be less special forces if you tried.
Fer: Remember the part about this being fantasy?
ArmAx: :sigh:
Fer: Just give me my high-speed/low-drag gun already.
ArmAx: You're only going to embarass yourself again, comrade, but here you are.
Fer: Thank you.

True to form, I lived only a short while. Comrade Headspace moved us on the high ground of the runway's northern end, our engineers lacing the road with satchels as we moved. To be fair, we managed to explode the T90s and murderise all but one of the surviving crew members (though I confess I couldn't see much through my bloom-filled NVGs and was not particularly good with my SAW). However, as we attempted to escape northwards into the suburbs, two BMP-2s and a T-55 came at us from that direction. I died, as we all did, cowering against a rock in a riverbed, feebly hoping that my high-speed/low-drag camo would save me.

Congratulations to the rest of the (regular) platoon for managing to take the objective with respectable losses and only one cooked-up IFV!

:hist101:

Oh Marine, I watched you burn!

++

Lead Stocks

MMG1: Toppometer
|- Assistant: Fer

Almost as soon as we had disembarked from the trucks we came under fire from enemies unseen. The rest of the platoon appeared to know where it was going, so we didn't panic. Instead, comrade Toppo and myself spent a very enjoyable 5 minutes moving by bounds through the woods. It was all "Bounding!" and "... set!" and felt very proficient. Unfortunately, horrible things were happening to the other side of the platoon, so we had to come back and join up with CO, comrade Wolfenswan.

We were probably no more than 50-100m into the woods, with open fields to our right and a road some distance ahead. I believe the bulk of the platoon was ahead, or roughly in line with us. There may even have been one fireteam out in the field, pinned down behind one of the low stone walls. Whatever the detailed picture, the rough impression over comms was that we were bogged down, and badly so. Then it got worse.

I must have been shot and patched up at least 3 times in the course of 5 minutes. Despite the order to fall back, many of us were guilty of attempting to heal the fallen or at least drag them - slowly - into some form of cover. Like a textbook example of why it's better to win the firefight before tending to the wounded, we became targets in an easy shooting gallery for the enemy.

Eventually, when Toppo was dead and my legs shot away, blood making my vision red, I saw the enemy. A handful of troops were advancing on us from the road, upright and moving quickly towards the undergrowth where I lay. I fired every round in my rifle (to no avail), until all I could hear was click-click-click-click-click.

:commissar:

++

Feruzablues

MMG1: Toppometer
|- Assistant: Fer

We landed in a hot LZ, but because of the way the mission had been configured I spent an agonizing few moments trapped in the bird, unable to dismount until my element leader, Toppo, issued an order with the command interface. Once out of the bird, Toppo and myself settled into the work of engaging targets with his M240, my job being to use my laser designator to spot and provide accurate ranges. The platoon as a whole probably cleared the valley in a few minutes, leaving us the odd straggler to engage. Then we were off, up the slope to our north-west, to join Alpha/Bravo and MAT1 on the ridge overlooking Feruzabad.

As I crawled over the crest of the ridge, the first thing I saw was a truck-mounted ZSU positioned at small army outpost south of the town, but on ground almost as elevated as ours. The barrels were pointing in our direction, but the gunner hadn't spotted us or the rest of Alpha/Bravo. Toppo immediately set up to fire on the truck and there then followed a reasonably long conversation between our squad leader (Alpha FTL, comrade Bodge) and the CO, (comrade Draakon). Comrade Draakon wanted us to identify targets in the town before opening up on the truck, and in any case wanted MAT1 to do the job of eliminating the AAA threat (which is remarkably effective against infantry and light armour).

It was a good call. With my rangefinder I helped spot ot confirmt the presence of a BRDM in the town's army base, a DShKM at the head of the road leading up to the mine, and a technical at the town's western exit. When we did open fire, it was still Toppo that killed the ZSU's gunner, but in a flash he moved to engage the DShKM and disable the technical. We stayed on the ridge longer than any other element, covering Alpha/Bravo's descent into the town and successfully engaging a handful of enemies that attempted to climb the slope.

When the town was taken, we moved down to assume a rearguard position at the head of the road up to the mine. A small number of enemies were moving on foot towards us from the south-west, running down a more westward slope of the ridge we had just occupied and crossing the flat valley floor amidst a hail of our bullets. Comrade Toppo made the most of his remaining ammunition and cut them all down, before scavenging an RPK and making for the mine itself.

The rest of the platoon was mopping-up by the time we got within any useful distance of the mine complex, though I did get to witness the luckiest man alive making his run down the hill above the mineshaft. Well, he was the luckiest man alive until he wasn't alive.

Then the mission was over and I called for a photo-op at the entrance to the mineshaft. I'm afraid someone popped smoke at that point (boo!), so I aborted my plans.

Note: Mid-way through the mission someone destroyed the (disabled and unmanned) BRDM with satchels. As a rule, in Folk sessions, please don't do that unless you've cleared it with the CO first.

:cop:

++

Mail Man

Charlie: Fer

I rode with comrade Head in his personal Littlebird, and was glad when he set me down near comrade Tigershark's LZ, where comrade Draakon's Alpha fireteam was making a beeline for the little house that overlooks the crash site from the south-east. Enemies were down the slope, some near the house itself, so we poured fire onto them. My suppressed G36K was surprisingly handy at medium range, and soon it was safe to continue on to the downed C-130 itself.

Comrade Sulphur and others from Brave narrowly beat me to the wreck and initiated the data download process. For a little while I helped cover the southern approach, but quickly moved northwards up the valley in anticipation of an enemy technical that was moving in. The ill-fated vehicle was allowed to get quite close to the crash site before punishing fire from both sides of the little valley finished off the crew. Bravo recovered the still servicable 4x4 and I fell back to the C-130 again, pausing briefly to look at the flaming wreck of ShowMeTheMonkey's Huey, which had crashed and burned to our north.

When the data download was complete, comrade Tigershark brought his Huey in to land near the wreck and I climbed aboard with Alpha. Comrade Head's personal Littlebird took off the remaining members of Bravo, though I believe some brave souls drove out of the valley in the captured technical. After some Air Cav flying from comrade Tigershark, we made it home to the base.

:clint:

++

I hope others enjoyed the session as much as I did, it was a pleasure to host and to play in.

Wolfenswan do you have the rest of that video :D? Cause the vid cuts off right at the moment where yours truly made his first kill ever playing with RPS in a TT/FOLK game! Unlike everyone else before me, I survived those AIs!!! Hilarious how everyone went "the new guy is on his own" on comm XD That's exactly how I felt, I was on my own in the middle of the desert with tangos all around, without even knowing where they were! Awesome session!

(not sure if posting comments is appropriate in this thread, maybe you guys keep posts to narratives of the action only? if so, just delete this ^^)